Seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the armed robbery of tennis star Anna Chakvetadze and her family.
World No.6 Chakvetadze, holder of seven Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles, attracted the robbers with her tennis successes which of course go together with high earnings. The 21-year-old Russian was tied up along with her parents on December 18 by six armed robbers who broke into their Moscow house and stole roughly $202,000 in money and valuables.
The suspects have been implicated in more than 50 other robberies. They are all between the ages of 25 and 40 and live in Moscow or the Moscow region. Some of the items seized during their arrest belonged to Chakvetadze, including a mobile phone and several pieces of jewelry.
Despite the traumatizing experience, Chakvetadze’s parents don’t want to move.
“I just couldn’t sleep the first three nights in my room,” said Chakvetadze.
“Then it was okay but I wanted to live in another place in Moscow, to change location, but my parents didn’t really want to. So now we have bodyguards in the house and alarms, everything you can do.”
Chakvetadze has been haunted by the robbery, but the good thing is that despite the hardships she managed to win a tournament since. Chakvetadze won the Open Gaz the France title in February, and improved to fantastic 7-0 in career finals. (source: The Moscow Times)
